What a surprise to recognize some locations that still exist. The Temple station is a real place. How corny some of the lines: "Hunny...I'm on duty." I was so tickled, I laughed out loud. Rating purely for entertainment value no cinematography.

so only watch it if you want to see a bad movie. I give it no stars as giving it a "stars" rating is not really helpful. If you want to see a good film, it gets one star (lowest). If you want to see a good bad film, I'd give it 4 stars.

This is the version of the movie that played in the movie theaters. The 'Director's Cut' version that was released to home video removed the Black Face Musical scene and replaced it with footage of a vintage stripper from that era.

I don't care for Black Face shows but I also do not like seeing movies that had been re edited.

Does anyone else think it is a hoot that the super SQUEAKY clean "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" used king of Ed Wood sleaze, Lyle Talbot on their show? You gotta love it!!!!!!!!

but what do you expect to get from an Edward D Wood Jr story? The flaws are everywhere and they're pretty obvious (listen to the dialog!) so no need to point them out.

You'll recoognize a lot of familiar faces from other Wood movies. A pre Hercules Steve Reeves has a supporting role with the only name actor in this, Lyle Talbot.

Watch it if you are in an Ed Wood mood, don't if you are in a good movie mood because it may cause convulsions.

I wish I had read the reviews first, but with that title, what could go wrong?

Ron Ormond teamed up with theater owner Joy Newton Houck Sr., forming the Howco production company which produced this movie. The blackface act (@16:00) of Cotton Watts and Chick, was so offensive as to be parodiously funny. I am told that that scene is from "Yes, Sir, Mr. Bones", a 1951 Ron Ormond movie. This scene was just dropped in between scenes, serving no other apparent purpose but to add length to the film. In most movies, this tacking on of content unrelated to the plot would have ruined the story, but this movie only benefits from the intrusion.

As cosmico noted, the soundtrack of Jail Bait is also lifted from another Howco/Ormond production, "Mesa of Lost Women". The music is, as other reviewers have noted, horribly, unbelievably bad. There is also way too much of it. Like a hammer in the head – it feels so good when it stops.

On the plus side, it was nice to see a few locations filmed in 1954 in Temple City and Alhambra Ca. I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley – eventually.

Did I mention that this movie is bloody awful? Nobody would blame you if you hit the back button on your browser right now.

The acting in most cases was atrocious and the Mexican-sounding soundtrack was a laughable mismatch. I wasn't sure if the ridiculous music was coming from a radio or if the film makers were actually serious.

Examples of the music ruining the scenes were when they broke in to do the robbery and then when they arrived back at his girl's place afterwards

Goldies

...Skinny Geeky Steve Reeves Beef Up So Fast For The Italian Sword & Sandle Flicks..?..Any Idea..?..Delores Fuller Is In My Autograph Collection..She Was Ed Wood's Girlfriend..Oh. Prunella..!

The title is a misnomer - you expect to see a 50s-style sexploitation programmer called "Jail Bait" - but it has more of a plot than your average Ed Wood flicker, namely Plan 9 From Outer Space. Like that movie, the dialogue is a bit out in left field and the acting - except for Lyle Talbot's - amateurish and stilted. The sets are less cheesy than Plan 9's cardboard airplane cockpit; actual Los Angeles locations were used. The addition of a minstrel show routine is superfluous and gratuitous, but when is anything in an Ed Wood movie never superfluous?

With a more competent director and scenarist, we would have a better movie even though the plastic surgery angle makes for a compelling plot. However, this is Ed Wood, and our expectations are not always high, but Jail Bait is one notch above the usual incompetent Ed Wood cinematic exercise. Being his only foray into one of my favorite genres - film noir - also helps, and I've never seen a film noir I didn't like. Good little B- picture.

This has NOTHING whatever to do with the title and the title probably should be titled, "How to not act" or "How to not write a script", but it oddly will draw you in and have you expecting a different plot at almost every turn till the end which then ends ultra predictably. Almost as predictable as whether the sun will rise in the east.

A gnarly Woodsie twisted tale
To which the majors said "No sale".
But Ed would do what Ed Wood do
To make his noir style pic come true.
Perhaps the continuity
Is not what you'd expect it be;
The acting poor; some lines are trite,
But Ed was sure his vision right:
To make some bucks and on the cheap
Ed Wood would spread the BS deep.

It's a pleasant feeling when you reach the end and the flamenco guitar stops.

Cheesy, low budget, sooo Ed Wood! The closest thing to an actor is Lyle Talbot.

I saw this movie a while ago. It's OK. It's not a good movie, but for a Ed Wood movie, it's OK.

OK?

An amazing and unusual Ed Wood film, if for no other reason than it actually resembles a "real" mainstream '50s b-movie (for the most part), and because a lot of people who have grown tired of Plan 9 from Outer Space and its raucous fandom and can't take it any more might find the change of pace interesting. Good to see that Wood explored other genres before he threw his life away, also nice to know that this is definitely in the public domain, and not owned or controlled by one person.

In his book "Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir," the late Arthur Lyons comments about this film that it is Ed Wood's "sole and largely neglected attempt at noir ... filled with brilliant bits of dialogue ... Steve Reeves' first speaking role reveals why the Italians dubbed over his voice in his later Hercules roles." Also that, "economical and original to the end, Wood lifted the oddball music score, a constantly strumming flamenco guitar interspersed with a dissonant pounding piano ... from Mesa of the Lost Women, a film he probably admired as it ranks up there with his own work as one of the worst horror films of all time." Easy to poke fun at Wood, but how many of his critics ever tried making their own films? But yes, the music is annoying if you let it be.

This film's original title was The Hidden Face (which makes a lot more sense with respect to the story), but was changed to Jail Bait to for a bigger boxoffice draw, no doubt. In fact, in one scene a bit of dialogue is dubbed in to have a character say "jail bait" in a context entirely different from what most viewers would expect.

If all you've seen of Wood's work is the wacky sci-fi horror fantasy Plan 9, or his moldy, creaky Bride of the Monster, this is definitely worth a look, as it's short and pretty darn fast-moving. And yes, it has some classic bits of Ed's trademark dialogue that may either make you laugh, cry, or groan. All in all, a fun, odd, but breezy little movie.

Bizarrely bad.